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Christmas Decoration Madness

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I have never been much of a Christmas decorator. Last year I bought a few metal stars to hang in my windows but otherwise I have almost nothing. This year I noticed a computer Christmas decoration contest over at Sweclockers.com, sponsored by Alina Systems. As I dislike my computer pretty much and the prize was a crazy machine it was not hard to decide to participate. I began looking for decorative items a week or so prior to actually trying my hand at it. In total I went to three shops to get everything I figured I could have use for. Then after the Christmas craze I spent a day decorating, shooting and de-decorating my computer space, on the 26th. I had a vague plan in my head so I went at it without hesitation, but much was made up on the go. You can see a time-lapse of the process and the end result in the video below.

Here is a detailed list of what items I used for my decoration.

Previously owned:

2x small metal stars with bulbs inside

3x extension power cords

3x power strips of different sizes

3x rolls of masking tape with different widths

Roll of yellow string

Battery powered RGB LED figure; inside the gingerbread house

Smoke machine; to add some atmosphere

Winter themed candle holder with four red cups with lit candles in them

Purchased for this event:

1x 12m outdoor light chain with 480 lights

2x 8.7m indoor light chains with 144 lights each

2x RGB LED USB lines with eight santas on each

1x large paper star with a bulb inside

2x 2.0 m green/silver fuzzy garlands

2x 2.5m green glitter garlands

3x 4.5m glitter garlands entwined (gold, silver, red)

4x 4.5m silver glitter garlads

5x large chocolate santas

8x small chocolate santas

9x chocolate eggs

3x chocolate bombs

60x+ Christmas tree decorations clumped together

Borrowed from my parents:

2x soft santa dolls

3x seven candle electrical stakes

A bunch of cotton under the gingerbread house

Advent candlestick holder with four red candles

Battery powered golden bell

Christmas coronal with a red bell

Christmas crib with Joseph, Mary, Baby Jesus, three wise men, shepherd, three sheep, a cow and mule and a well.

Electrically lit church

Electrically lit poinsettia

Embroidery saying “God Helg” (Happy Holiday)

Gingerbread house

Programmable LED sign saying “GOD JUL!” (Merry Christmas)

Borrowed from a friend:

Real live Christmas tree with decorations and lights

As you might have noticed in the video I removed it all the same night, mostly as the heat from the lights were undoing the masking tape that held them in place, and melting the chocolate figures, so it was all falling apart anyway. The result of the contest as not been published yet so there is nothing to report on that front. I’m not even sure if my entry is even considered as I freely interpreted “decorate your computer” into the entire computer space, and really, the computer alone was not roomy enough!

Update: Longplay won the contest with his gingerbread creation :) Well deserved I have to say. I wish I had been less stressed out so I could have been more creative, this time around I got to rely on the overkill-spam tactic, which apparently did not work :x I will try to keep this in mind for future entries, meaning more planning and probably less work!

Update2: Hah! Apparently I got a posting over at the site, awesome! ^_^ Oh, and with that link I just created an infinite Internet loop.

It sure was a special feeling with everything in place :) It was a bit hard to appreciate the view though, after frantically fixing it all together! In the end, as depicted in the video, I just wanted to get it packed away again :x Still, now I have lights and stuff for next year!

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